(25 Feb 2018, 10:28 pm)Andreos1 wrote I just tried to tally up how many Solar's are left, but I got bored checking on each status.
If you or anyone else fancies it...
I suppose it was easier and cheaper to take the upgrades at the time, than have to worry about replacing a chunk of them.
Win/win for GNE in a number of aspects. Certainly in the short-term.
However, I do think it has hindered them long-term.
Whether they can finance new vehicles or not, passengers on the 35 have certainly lost out and I wonder what perception those passengers hold now.
What may have been good PR initially, has resulted in vehicles well past their best (not sure anyone could argue with that), plying their trade on a major corridor and prone to competition from it's own services, never mind SNE.
Going back to what I said earlier about the pool of withdrawn vehicles and spares, it could mean that these Solar's are quite cheap to repair.
The GNE fleetlist easier to work out.
I think GNE have done the best they can with the limitations in place. I think allocating citaros to the 9 rather than the 35 is the better of 2 evils; upgrading 3 routes (9, 61 and 88) instead upgrading a less used service 35. Also if the limitations werent in place i think the 35 would of received new vehicles along along with the new black cat streetlites